Family stories and research stories that tell the tale of my personal research. If you have a similar family line or want to know more. Please contact me!

Thursday, August 2, 2012

John Barton Pennington - Oregon Pioneer

Group 7 of the Pennington Research Association includes
three distinct groups – those that descend from Micajah b. 1743, those that
descend from Ephraim b.1769, and those that descend from Benajah b. 1770. The only one of those groups that stayed in
Ashe Co., NC is the descendants of Ephraim.
Micajah’s line mostly left and went to Lee Co., VA and Harlan Co.,
KY. Benajah took a different route and
ended up in TN and later Alabama and Missouri.
His son, John Barton Pennington traveled even father and was a pioneer
in his own right.

John Barton Pennington was b. 25 Apr 1820 in Blue Springs,
Roane Co., TN as the fourth child of Benajah Pennington and Matilda Emery
Hembree. On 7 Apr 1841 in Dade Co., MO,
John married Sarah Elizabeth Hembree, his first cousin. Their first child was born in Dade Co., MO in
1842 and on 21 May 1843, John, his wife and one year old daughter (Martha
Matilda) left Independence, MO on a wagon train heading to Oregon. Two of Sarah’s brothers traveled with them
and in August of 1843, Sarah gave birth to another daughter (Mary Jane) near
South Pass in modern day Wyoming. In a
time when many women were coddled during the last months of pregnancy, Sarah
was heavily pregnant and traveling on a wagon train. The wagon train arrived at Fort Vancouver in
November and along with Sarah’s brothers, claimed land near McMinnville, OR
with about 400 acres each. Three more
children were born in Oregon until Sarah’s death on 25 Feb 1851.

Two years later, John married Elizabeth Jane Sportsman and
in the next 11 years, five more children were born, and in about 1865, John
sold his land and moved his family to Visalia, Tulare Co., CA and is recorded
there in 1870. His wife, Elizabeth dies
in 1872 and John marries Margaret Fisher, a widow. In 1880, John and Margaret with her children
and his daughter Clarissa Ann are found in Douglas Co., OR near Roseburg. By 1883, John is back in California and his
daughter Clarissa is marrying George Washington Hensley. John’s third wife, Margaret dies in 1906 and
John lives with his stepson, James Fisher until they moved from the Fresno, CA
area when John moved in with Clarissa and her husband. John died on 4 Oct 1910 when he fell from a
wagon and broke his neck.

When you look at the history of the Oregon trail and those
that first traveled west, one of the most important characters of history is
Marcus Whitman. He was a missionary
who came out around 1836 with his wife, Narcissa. He traveled back east to convince those in
power to keep the missions open in Oregon.
I’ve grown up in Lewiston, ID which is just west of the Spaulding
mission near Lapwai, ID. Henry Spaulding
and his wife came west with the Whitman’s to found their missions. Henry Spaulding with his near Lapwai, and the
Whitman’s with their mission near Walla Walla, WA. So, I’ve lived my whole life
hearing stories about the Spaulding’s and the Whitman’s. The missionaries came west in 1836 and
started their missions.

Whitman traveled
back and helped lead the same wagon train that John Barton Pennington came west
with. He mostly likely delivered the
child that John’s wife Sarah delivered near South Pass since he was a medical
doctor. Tragically the Whitman’s were
killed by the Cayuse Indians after a measles epidemic in 1847 when about half
of the Cayuse Indians and almost all of their children died.

So John Barton Pennington not only was one of the first to
travel the wagon trains west on the Oregon trail he also knew someone who was
incredibly important in the settling of the west – especially in the region
that I live in. The life that these
settlers encountered when they first came to Oregon couldn’t have been
easy. Fort Vancouver was a well-established
trading post but once they left and headed down the Columbia, they left all civilization
and had to build a new life. There were
no roads and the only settlements were in Salem and Fort Vancouver. It wasn’t until after the Gold rush in 1849
in California when supplies were brought in more regularly. So the John Barton
Pennington family had to live through a lot of hardship and were truly pioneers. (Special thanks to Stephen Crawford for telling me this story)

Descendants
of John Barton Pennington

Generation
No. 1

1. JOHN BARTON4 PENNINGTON (BENAJAH3) was born 25 Apr
1820 in Blue Springs, Roane Co., TN, and died 04 Oct 1910 in Fresno, Fresno
Co., CA. He married (1) SARAH ELIZABETH HEMBREE 07 Apr 1841 in
Dade Co. MO, daughter of JAMES HEMBREE and NANCY PETTIT. She was born 10 May 1816 in Warren Co., TN,
and died 25 Feb 1851 in Yamhill Co., OR.
He married (2) ELIZABETH JANE SPORTSMAN 25 Feb 1853 in
Yamhill Co., OR. She was born Abt. 1827
in IN/MO, and died Abt. 1872 in Visalia, Tulare Co., CA. He married (3) MARGARET J. FISHER 26 May 1875 in
Visalia, Tulare Co., CA. She was born
Abt. 1833 in MO, and died 1906 in Fresno, Fresno Co., CA.